Stories of learning and leading

jennifer casa-todd

Many educators and schools have reached out to me regarding what their students are doing online. Unfortunately, it is often in reaction to an issue that they are trying to fix, not a plan to be proactive in leading their students.

“Using the vast reach of technology (especially the use of social media) to improve the lives, well-being, and circumstances of others.”

For years, many educators like Jason Shaffer and Jennifer Casa-Todd, have been promoting and creating opportunities for students to be proactive and build opportunities for themselves to use the advantages of social media. This goes beyond citizenship, but into leadership.

As I work with students on their use of social media, they have communicated that they are tired of the “cyberbullying” talk, and I don’t blame them. Being constantly told what not to do is not very inspiring. Although it is an important message, what are the best results because of the focus on cyberbullying by schools? That our students won’t be horrible online? As Shelley Wright stated, “students often defy expectations if you give them the opportunity.” Schools should focus on empowering students to do something amazing with the opportunities that lie in front of them.

There are lots of complexities with social media that adults are still figuring out, let alone students. It is messy, but we need to be in on the conversation. We can fear the worst and react after the fact, or we can be proactive in leading students in doing something that we couldn’t do when we were the same age. Yes, there are negatives, but we need to focus on the powerful opportunities that lie in front of our students and take advantage.

It was a true honour to write the foreword for Jennifer Casa-Todd’s book, “Social Leadia“. Although I have already read it, I wanted to go through it again through Kindle and highlight some of my favourite quotes. It is an amazing book to really promote important conversations on not only “digital citizenship” in schools, but going further to “digital leadership“.

What I love most about the book is how Jennifer seamlessly weaves in her thinking, the thinking of others, while also highlighting student examples and quotes. This quote from Timmy Sullivan, a student at the time, is quite powerful:

“I have a radical concept for you, especially those of you who talk negatively about social media: Stop. Really. If you present social media as a positive space, as a place where students can express themselves and connect with professionals and other students, then that’s the type of learning you are going to see there.” — Timmy Sullivan

Sage advice from a student leading the way in his own learning, as well within his school. No offense to Jennifer, but there is just something about when the quotes come from a student that makes them so much more powerful. In my conversations with Jennifer, I know she would agree, hence the reason she wanted to highlight so many students throughout the book, and she weaves their narratives throughout the book masterfully. It is a powerful read.

Jennifer also doesn’t shy away from some tough conversations throughout the book. This quote really resonated on why it is so important to give students opportunities to use social media within schools:

I know that out of the thirty students in any one of my classes, less than half have solid family support. Few sit down at a dinner table with their families each night, and some have so many other issues to contend with that creating a website that explores their passions, developing a positive online presence, or improving someone else’s life in person or through technology or social media is completely inconsequential. I am gravely concerned that if we don’t provide opportunities in all schools for all students to become digital leaders, we’ll have students at an additional disadvantage, especially if they don’t have digital access at home.

The equity conversation comes up often and I appreciate Jennifer addressing it. Reading a comment from an educator recently, they had stated something that I have heard often; some of this use of technology will identify the “have’s and have not’s”. The tough conversation here is that ignoring technology and the opportunities it provides with our students truly address this long term or does it simply put our students in a tougher situation and make the divide much larger?

Another concern often voiced in response to innovative initiatives is that the new program or approach might create superior learning opportunities—opportunities that aren’t offered in another learning environment. If what’s best for learners is our primary concern, equity of opportunities will be created at the highest of levels, not the lowest.

Equity at the highest level, not simply equity, is something that we should always strive for in education. Every student should have the best opportunities to learn in ways that will help them now and in the future. The conversations that Jennifer brings up on her own throughout the book, as well through the experiences of the students she highlights in her books are ones that are necessary as we move forward.

My good friend, Jennifer Casa-Todd, has released a wonderful book on the topic of social media and students, entitled, “Social Leadia; Moving Students from Digital Citizenship to Digital Leadership“. This book not only provides a powerful “why” for students using social media in powerful and positive ways, it provides practical strategies for educators and parents while sharing stories of students doing amazing things right now. It is a unique book, and I am proud to have been a part of it, while also writing the foreword.

I will never forget a workshop that I was leading with educators, that also had a significant number of students in the room. We were discussing the ideas of digital citizenship and digital leadership, and one of the adults in the room expressed the idea that these things were not something we needed to talk about in school. No matter what I had said, he countered that social media wasn’t important in schools. One of the students in the room stepped in and said, “Sir, social media is like water. It is everywhere. You can either let us drown or teach us to swim.” Not only was I moved by his words, the teacher immediately redirected his focus to get into the conversation, not stop it. This was a beautiful reminder that we need to stop telling our students that they are the “leaders of tomorrow”; they obviously can have a major impact on the world today!

I was reminded of this student’s words when I was speaking at a “Digital Leadership” event for approximately 2000 high school students. At the beginning of the event, I encouraged the students to share any ideas, thoughts, or questions they had to a specific hashtag, or tweet me directly during my talk or both.

Usually, when I do this, I show videos during my presentations, which allow me to check the hashtag and gauge what the audience is feeling or thinking. What I noticed was one tweet that expressed how “boring” the talk was, using an expletive in front of the word boring that started with the letter “f”. Feeling a little squeamish, I went on, showed another video, and then noticed two more tweets that were much worse, and attacking me directly. As one of the biggest advocates of the power of social media for helping people to make a positive change in the world, I have to be honest what I felt at that moment: I need to shut this down.

Then while I was presenting, I caught myself and thought, “Am I really going to shut this down because of three students out of 2000?” Am I going to let them drown or help them learn to swim?

I had to redirect. Without directly acknowledging the inappropriate comments, and in the context of the talk, I stated the following:

“Every single one of you in this room can have a major impact on the lives of others, including me. Do you know how I can tell if you have made that impact on me? If I saw you outside of this school, would I cross the street to come talk to you. If I would, you have made an impact on me, and I hope that I can be the person that you would go out of your way to talk to as well. Let’s be that for each other.”

Showing another video, I checked the tweets again. This time, I saw a student say, “I like the way you present your message. It’s really entertaining and informative.” I immediately stopped everything and asked for the student to stand up, which he did. With a tear in my eye, I said, “You have no idea the impact you just had on me. Thank you.” I will never forget that moment as the other students cheered for him as well. What followed though was incredible, because his impact was not only on me but his fellow students as well. They started bombarding the hashtag with positive messages to me and what and how I was presenting, They were literally finding anything nice they could say to me. One student even said, “I love your sweater!” Anything nice they could think of, they said to me.

After the presentation, I was overwhelmed by the positivity that they shared towards me. Going through the tweets, the first three that I mentioned were “buried” at the bottom of the pile. So much so, that the teachers from the school had no idea that it actually happened in the first place until I brought it to their attention; they had only seen the compliments. Those students taught me something that day that I will never forget.

We need to make the positives so loud that the negatives are almost impossible to hear.

And to think, I was so close to shutting that opportunity down from the majority, because of a very tiny few. Do we do this too often in schools?

This is why I am so happy that Jennifer Casa-Todd has written this book. Her perspective as a leader, educator, and parent brings these ideas together in a way that will not only provide answers, but have you asking questions as well. This is extremely important because adults need to be in on these conversations.

Think of all the stuff that we used to get away with when we were kids, that could totally alter a life today? We all made mistakes (and still do so to this day), but our kids don’t have the same luxury that we did when we were growing up. Many of the people reading this book didn’t post anything inappropriate on Facebook when they were teens, not because they thought so deeply about their future, but because Facebook didn’t exist (although you might have something on a MySpace page somewhere!). When I talk about this with students, many of them say that it is unfair that they are held to a different standard than we were as kids. What I tell them is that, “You are right, it is unfair. But you also have more opportunity than I ever did at your age. What will you do with it?”

What Jennifer does beautifully in this book is she not only shares an adult perspective on how to make an impact on leading towards a positive narrative, she shares powerful examples of young people already doing this, and rather than speak for them, she let’s us hear from those students directly. Some of the positive stories she shares about the transformative power of social media are because of their teachers, and some are in spite of them. I know that personally, I would like to be the reason that our students make positive choices in these spaces. In reading Jen’s work over the past few years, and in what she is sharing in this powerful book, she is showing how kids right now, are creating opportunities that were impossible when we were kids.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be aware of the negatives, but we also need to take advantage of the positives. As Jennifer will show you, these positive opportunities are not meant only for the outliers, but can become the norm for our students, if we are purposeful in how we look at the world, and the opportunities that exist. When you look at a device in a child’s hand, do you see distraction, or do you see opportunity? How you look at it, will determine how you lead.

I am 100% confident that Jennifer will not only push your thinking, but she will guide you as to how to embrace the realities that exist in our world today. The book might make you feel uncomfortable at some points, which is how our brains grow and is part of the “messiness” that is learning that we need to embrace, but if you are reading this, it means you are in on the conversation.

Knowing Jennifer personally, I know she is just as passionate about changing the current trajectory of how we view social media in education as I am. As parents and educators, we all want the same thing for our kids; something better for them than what we had at their same age. Jennifer hasn’t written a book that only focuses on the idea, “social media is here to stay, so we might as well pay attention.” She has done something much more powerful. She has shown that the opportunities for our children are now better than ever, and she walks you through how to make this a reality in your schools.

In my last post, “Common Assessments” vs “Common Understandings”, I was reminded of how powerful comments are on a blog, and why blogging is a hugely powerful tool for not only sharing your learning, but learning from others. To be honest, one thing that I feel guilty about is not responding to comments on my blog, but I love reading them. I kind of feel that I have already shared my thinking, and I hope that I can stand back and watch others discuss and learn from their conversations. I always read the comments and appreciate when people take time to grapple with and share their thinking. (Read Bill Ferriter’s post on commenting…it is great.)

To catch you up on the last post, here is what I shared:

Now there is a difference between wanting students to have the same test, or the same understandings of material. If I ask students to show that they understand the same objective, does the way we assess truly have to be the same?2 What I think we mean is that we are looking for “common understandings”, not “common assessments”. The notion of a “common assessment” does not take the individual into account, where “common understandings” allows for different pathways to show learning.

As I am just starting to explore this concept, I would love to know your challenges to these thoughts. Differentiated instruction cannot come with standardized assessments, or am I way off here?

There were lots of great comments, and I loved this response that gives a concrete example from Jennifer Casa-Todd:

I think the key is the idea of common understandings that you mention. So here’s my take.There can be common assessments that still ask students to demonstrate their learning. For example, in an English exam, I can ask. What new understanding do you have about human nature based on your learning in this course? In your answer, draw from three specific course materials (texts, characters, discussions, etc…). In a History course I can give students a passage from an article and ask them to Identify three connections they see in the article and what they have learned in the course. If this same assessment was given in 6 different grade 9 classes, each of whom have studied different things and had different class discussions, the responses would be very individual and very much a demonstration of their own learning of course materials. So if we need to have the “same assessment” because we are worried about what parents would say (not that I believe that should be a justification), the questions need to be open ended enough that each student brings their own unique learning and perspective to the response. And it has to be an application of that knowledge rather than a regurgitation of it. This would be far more interesting to mark, but definitely takes more time than marking a content-based, straightforward response which may be why it isn’t as common a practice as it could be.

What I love is that there is a grappling of ideas from what could be holding us back (perception of fairness from parents, time constraints), but also solid ideas. If you read from the comments, you will learn MUCH more than you do from the original post which was simply batting some thoughts around.

I have heard the cries of those who claim, “Students should be able to demonstrate their knowledge however they want!” I disagree. Throughout the school year a wide array of opportunities should exist, but at certain points students should be “forced” to communicate what they know in written/essay format, as this is a valuable skill in and of itself. Also, when assessing and grading in other formats – e.g., videos, posters, various apps, etc. – let’s make sure not to prioritize flash over substance.

Ross is a good friend of mine and I respect deeply what he is sharing (check out his co-authored book on project based learning). The one part that I struggle with in his comment though is that students should be “forced” to write an essay. You would obviously not (well as least I would hope not) expect a student who did not speak english as their first language to write their understanding of a concept, unless you were willing to read it in their first language, right? As I was thinking about this, unless the skill you are evaluating is the ability to write an essay, why would you ensure that they have to do something in any certain way. Is your (the teacher’s) way the best way to evaluate for any specific topic? I do agree with Ross’ belief that we often mark flash over substance, and that is something we need to change. It is the ability to share your understanding of a concept, not the ability to make a poster or video, unless that is the specific skill you are assessing.

I will give you an example of this in professional learning opportunities I provide. Often when I share some ideas, I ask participants after to share a reflection through a 30 second video on Twitter. There are a few things that I am looking for here:

Your reflection on your learning which helps me understand what you have taken away from my learning.

Your ability to create a video on Twitter (skill).

Your ability to learn something that you may not have done before.

What we some times get caught up in is looking for numbers as an evaluation tool, but it is not always accurate. In one session, a participant discussed that we need to change the terminology from “Data Driven” to “Evidence Informed”. The former term often is connected with numbers, where “evidence informed”, is much more open. Believe me, when I do that activity, there are no numbers provided, but there is a ton of evidence of learning.

One last comment I want to bring up, from Bill Ferriter. He says the following:

…a quick reaction as a guy who promotes common assessments as a part of the PLC process: Common assessments to me aren’t about the students at all. They become the starting point for conversations between teachers who are reflecting on their instructional practices — and unless the assessments are “common,” those conversations aren’t all that productive.

They are also about holding teachers accountable for teaching a basic set of shared skills/content to kids so that students in one class aren’t getting a drastically different learning experience than students in another class.

I’m all for allowing kids to demonstrate mastery in a thousand different ways and I think that’s something schools rarely do.

But I also believe in the power of a common assessment to drive conversations between groups of teachers on what they are doing well and where they could be doing better.

I think this is an important conversation as assessment should often guide teaching, not the other way around. When you change the way you think about assessments, teaching changes, as you may often see in schools that move from “grades” to standards-based reporting. I love Bill’s idea of “common assessments” being a part of conversation on teaching and learning, but I will admit that I have seen common assessments being implemented for the sake of “fairness”, not conversation, in the past.

As I go through these comments and my own thinking, I am not sure if I am any closer to my own answers, but what I believe is that schools should teach students not what to think, but how to think. These conversations where we share our learning are crucial for modelling to our students. Just the ability to grapple with ideas openly in your own space is important, which is why I am a huge proponent of portfolios showing the summaries of your learning, as well as your process. If we work with our students to focus on both elements, our schools will continue to move in a powerful direction.

The brilliant Katie Martin will be joining again to help host this experience, but alumni from the first course will also be taking part to lead in this experience as well. Not only is this a great way to dig deeper into the content of the book, it is an amazing opportunity to create your own learning, while networking with passionate educators around the world. We have also confirmed guests that will be joining us not only for a YouTube Live, but as well as a Twitter chat every Wednesday night at 9pm EST (6pm PST).

We are also extremely excited to bring on some awesome guests for this experience that will share their own experiences and work, to open up the learning past the book.

The great thing about the first IMMOOC, was participants created their own spaces to share as well. This is not limited to the groups that we are using above, so if you are interested in making your own spaces, please feel free to do so.

We look forward to having so many great people join this process and delving deeper into the importance of innovation in education.

1. empower others who have no voice
2. address societal inequality
3. promote important causes
4. learn and share their learning
5. be a more positive influence in the lives of others

And here are some great examples of kids doing this right now:

@ThatHannahAlper (Hannah Alper) uses social media to enpower and inspire–just check out her website, Call Me Hannah to see how she does this. She is also a champion of environmental causes and just recently became a Youth Ambassador for Bystander Revolution, which is an organization taking a stand on bullying.

@Aidan_Aird, a 15 year old student in our District. created a website, Developing Innovations, “To inspire, celebrate and promote #STEM.” Aird’s website states, “I realized there were lots of amazing kids out there working hard, creating and discovering amazing things. With them in mind, I created Developing Innovations…[which] has featured and celebrated over 65 young scientists from around the world on the website. There are so many hardworking young scientists out there that are trying to make a difference. By being featured on my website, they get the exposure they deserve and are encouraged to keep working hard. It is a place to celebrate their accomplishments and inspire other kids to follow in their footsteps.”

Jeremiah is a high school junior and creator of @westhighbros, a Twitter account that tweets compliments to friends and classmates. Check out the video here. (shared by George Couros @gcouros)

Though Kid President (@Iamkidpresident) gets a little help from Brad Montague, 10 yr-old Robby Novak definitely empowers others through his inspirational videos as well as his own story. He is also a champion for important causes. Currently, you can see him fighting child hunger by following the hashtag #hungerfreesummer or by checking out the video here.

Joshua ( @Joshua’s Heart) is a young man passionate about inspiring kindness in youth and stopping world hunger. Here is his keynote during the EduMatch Passion Pitch event hosted by @ShellTerrell and @SarahThomas found here. More information about the great work he is doing can be found at http://joshuasheart.org/

As Jennifer states in her post, it is easy to identify these kids as “outliers”, but our focus should be on making this the norm.

It is easy to complain that there is so much bad stuff online, so why not focus on teaching our students to inundate the web with the good?

About Me

I am a learner, educator, and Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership consultant. I am also the author of "The Innovator's Mindset". I believe we need to inspire our kids to follow their passions, while letting them inspire us to do the same.